1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a device for supplying fibres to a filling instrument of a brush manufacturing machine, in particular a device of the type which contains a fibre cartridge with at least two fibre supply ducts on the one hand, and which is provided with a drawer with loading spaces which are used to move the fibres coming from the fibre cartridge to a bundle remover working in conjunction with the above-mentioned filling instrument on the other hand.
2. Description of the Related Art
A device of the above-mentioned type is known from EP 0.206.385 owned by the assignee of this invention. Although this known device provides good results, it is disadvantageous in that it is only suitable for the supply of maximum two types of fibres.
Another type of device is known from EP 0.681.796. For the selective supply of the fibres from the fibre cartridge, use is hereby made of moveable closing devices working in conjunction with the ends of the fibre supply ducts which, thanks to their movement, make it possible for the bundle remover of the filling instrument to remove fibres from only one of the fibre supply ducts during every cycle. Since the fibre supply ducts are hereby situated with their ends directly along the path followed by the bundle remover, and since such bundle remover is relatively small, the number of fibre supply ducts which can be erected along this path is in practice limited to two.
Some known types of devices can be extended with several fibre supply ducts, but they are disadvantageous in that they have a complex construction, a larger inertia and sometimes there is a risk of the different types of fibres being mingled. The complexity of the construction hereby has a direct impact on the cost price and the user-friendliness of the brush manufacturing machine. The large inertia restricts the switching frequency, in other words the switching between different sorts of fibres. The mixing of different sorts of fibres is inadmissible from an aesthetic point of view for the product to be manufactured, in other words the brush to be manufactured.